VLVL(12) pgs 239- 246

[Michael Bailey]

sent first to only Bekah, sorry about that, Bekah

On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 4:27 PM, Michael Bailey
<michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
>  Bekah wrote:
>>
>> "Neither (Vond nor Frenesi) had offered the other anything liquid - it was
>> among the least of all the civilities allowed to lapse throughout Brock's
>> profession as the Nixonian Reaction continued to penetrate and compromise
>> further what may only in some facing memories ever have been a people's
>> miracle, an army of loving friends, as betrayal became routine, government
>> procedures for it so simple and greased that no one, Frenesi was finding
>> out, no matter how honorable their lives so far, could be considered safely
>> above it, wherever "above" was supposed to be, with money from the CIA, FBI,
>> and others circulating everywhere, leaving the merciless spores of paranoia
>> wherever it flowed, fungoid reminders of its passage."
>>
>
> so in a way the rather dry circulation of money replaced free flowing liquids...
> (but "there's nothing drier than a caucus race" as Alice poinedt out)-
>
>> .... but rather simply point out how the Nixonian Reaction had a totally
>> chilling,  devastating effect on the "army of loving friends" due to the
>> money-based betrayals.   All were suspect,  no one was "above" it.
>>
>> "Above"?
>
> there was also another tilt to the idea of selling out - particularly
> an artist would be accused of selling out when they stopped producing
> what they loved and instead looked to please the market ("decline from
> status to contract")
> this other selling out complements the informant type of selling out
> -- and became more and more acceptable, as is noted somewhere, Vond
> losing traction and favor as young people began to actively seek
> lucrative careers, somehow the stigma disappeared...
>
>> Frenesi  reports to Vond about how the "key log"  came loose.   The key log
>> would be the pivot on which a woodpile is balanced - if this log is moved
>> the pile comes tumbling down).  Key log equals Atman and because his
>> credibility is now doubted and  paranoia pervades the campus,   "it worked."
>> So it  was obviously a plot by Vond.
>
> woodpile is an interesting idea with interesting connotations, but it
> isn't what leaped out at me...
>
> "...the logs would disengage, singly and in groups, and continue on
> their way down the river to the sawmill..." 216
> logjam, also an opportunity for athleticism - log rolling and so forth
> - but also makes us think of the logging motif, the big woods being
> cut down, and also alludes to the IWW's successes with logging
> workers...
> also, there's a scene in one of those happy 60s movies - How to Murder
> Your Wife, maybe, which despite its title is really a cute number
> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058212/ - where Jack Lemmon is being
> encouraged by his lawyer to settle down and get married:
> "A single man is like a tree; but for a tree to be useful, it needs to
> be sent to the mill and be made into boards, furniture, boats" --
>
>> Then in Frenesi's reveries we are transported to a hypothetical future in
>> which she is being questioned by Vond at a Grand Jury hearing about the
>> death of Atman.  "Nobody attempted to trace the path of the gun."
>>
>> This is the second hypothetical or fantasized future in this chapter.
>>  Neither one comes to pass.
>>
>
> I can't find any verbiage indicating the grand jury was fancied.
> The picnic sure (it's maybe a little too easy to say, hey Vineland is
> that picnic, and reading it is like sitting there with the crabcakes
> and the sweet young thing, emotion recollected in tranquillity, but
> even if that's a little pat, it's pleasing)
> -- but the grand jury, and the mornings in the motel under witness
> protection and the state mandated drugs seems all too real to me and a
> perfect segue into her new career.
>
>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
>  - "He's a king mixer.  He hates group unity, so he gets everyone at
> it." - Paul, about his grandfather
>



-- 
 - "He's a king mixer.  He hates group unity, so he gets everyone at
it." - Paul, about his grandfather